Letters to the editor: Smoke and mirror show continues with no real change

Published 4:23 pm, Monday, May 1, 2017

To the editor:

By now I'm sure that most of you have received your property tax appraisal and looked with confused amazement at how deceiving the document is. My first hint was the "massive" improvement to exemptions for us Homesteaders and over 65ers. Wow, the Montgomery tax exemption increased a whopping 282%; Mud District improved by 49% and the county hospital improved by 198%. Of course these represent 18.6%, 12.6% and 3.1% respectively of our proposed tax. The big elephant in the room, however, is still the Conroe ISD totaling 49.8% of my proposed tax. There was, of course, no change for us homesteaders over 65 on the ISD exemption amount. Given these miraculous improvements, our tax bill went down a whole $70 over the previous year. Better than a poke in the eye, but really, what have our state senators and congressmen and women been doing for us? Where is the meaningful change they promised? The smoke and mirror show continues with no real change that positively improves the tax situation for seniors without kids in school. Even with the ISD tax ceiling frozen based upon the tax paid when you turned 65, this still ends up being a significant portion of the tax bill.

Before I receive the wrath of other contributors to this column, understand that I'm more than willing to pay a fair share of taxes for the services that I enjoy. At my age, school is not one of them, but again, I am willing to pay some nominal amount as a member of the community. It would be nice to also be assured the money would go directly to real education that grows the intelligence of our youngsters.

Since, I like to provide solutions when I whine, one possible solution could be to freeze the value of the home for all seniors, disabled, and veterans at the date they achieved that status. Almost like a Prop 13 from California. When the home is sold, the new owner assumes taxes on the current value of the home. This might allow seniors to stay in their homes, and possibly even encourage them to stay in the community they worked hard to live in. Just a thought to pass on to our legislators since they seem to be stymied to come up with a solution.

Arron Angle

The Woodlands

Good to see Dr. Duckworth back

To the editor:

So good to see Dr. Duckworth back! His letters are short and to the point. Some of the frequent letter writers to The Courier should take note! The long, long letters are usually very boring, and after reading the first paragraph I am done! Maybe these writers need a crash course from Dr. Duckworth.